Crushpad assets to be sold to highest bidder Tuesday

The assets of Crushpad, the Sonoma custom-crush company embroiled in financial crisis, will be sold in a single lot to the highest bidder in an auction at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Grapes and grape juice, bulk wine, cased goods, works in process, finished products, machinery, trademarks, patents, customer mailing lists and other goods will be part of the auction conducted by Mountain View firm Sherwood Partners.

Bidders will compete for the company's entire set of assets, said Martin Pichinson, co-founder and co-managing member of Sherwood Partners.

The property transfer, known as "assignment for the benefit of creditors," is an alternative to bankruptcy, he said.

"Our concern is to collect as much money as possible for the creditors, secured and unsecured," Pichinson said.

About 500 clients have more than 900 barrels stored at Sebastiani in Sonoma, where Crushpad was a tenant.

The sale will be conducted at the offices of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, 2 Embarcadero Center, Suite 5, San Francisco. For more information contact Adam Echter at (214) 471-5557 or crushpadsale@yahoo.com.